Millens Recycling opens in town of Ulster, but some neighbors concerned about safety

TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. -- Company officials at Millens Recycling, which opened Monday, are hopeful new equipment will take advantage of new markets for material.

But some neighbors are concerned there will be more accidents in the area because of increased traffic at an already bad location.

The facility at the corner of East Chester Street Bypass and Kieffer Lane became operational in a two-section 47,500-square-foot building.

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"What we're doing is a state-of-the-art facility now with everything indoors," said facility general manager Mike Baroni.

The facility employs 22 people and is expected to move 100 tons of material daily with about 20 vehicles dropping off and picking up items.

"We're not going to do too much different from what we ever did," Baroni said.

"We do have four or five pieces of equipment that are new," he said. "There's a new drain rack, which is standard in the industry, to drain all the (vehicle) fluids and it's got its own self-containment."

The facility opened about four months after the death of longtime owner Barney Millens, who had operated the business from East Strand in the city of Kingston. Baroni said it was disappointing to open the new location without his late boss.

"If you were good to him he was good to you," he said.

Baroni declined to discuss the status of the environmental cleanup at the East Strand Street location.

The B. Millens Scrap Yard on East Strand is listed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation as a Class 2 Superfund site, which it said presents a "significant threat" to the Rondout Creek. A state report notes that the facility has not complied with a cleanup agreement since a site investigation began in 1996.

However, concerns for neighbors of the new location come from an already difficult traffic problem created by vehicles from a bus company, electrical supply company, and cement block manufacturer.

"There were a lot of accidents even before they came so I'd imagine there's going to be a lot more of them," resident Bob Stewart said. "They haven't really gotten up and running, yet. Check back with me in a month."

Resident Karen Reilly said the size of trucks pulling into and out of Kieffer Lane has made it difficult for homeowners in a subdivision across the road to get onto East Chester Street Bypass. She suggested a traffic light be put up at the intersection.